On May Day (May 1) lily of the valley is sold by vendors on the streets
throughout Paris

Saturday ­ day 8

Saturday morning we packed and checked out of the Hotel
Brighton, leaving our bags with the hotel. We traveled to Gare de Lyon
to meet a train arriving from Besancon with Linda's niece, Aimee Thomas.
Aimee is the first person we knew with whom we could share the excitement
of just becoming engaged, and will always be special to me.

We walked across the street to the Les Deux Savoies so
Aimee could have coffee and we could plan our day of Paris Exploration.
It was a national holiday (May Day) so the vast majority of things we might
have done were closed.

Train from Besancon arriving at Gare de Lyon

Les Deux Savoies bistro and tavern

Linda and Aimee at a sidewalk table at Les Deux Savoies

We decided to start with a visit to the Basilique du Sacre
Coeur. After riding the Metro to the Montmartre, we walked up the streets
to the highest point in Paris. Butte Montmartre is the hill that gave its
name to this District of Paris.

There was a large crowd enjoying the holiday and we had
to carefully pick our way through the crowd, avoiding stepping on broken
bottles from the previous night's parties, to join the line filing into
the Basilique du Sacre Coeur. A mass was in progress, but the crowd touring
just kept going, often being too loud. We quietly explored the sides of
the building and gift shop, enjoying the sound of the mass as we looked
around.

Pathway to the observation area in front of the Basilique du Sacre
Coeur

View of Paris from nearly 130 meters up on butte Montmartre

Basilique du Sacre Coeur (The Basilica of the Sacred Heart of Jesus
of Paris)

Square Willette was the setting for one of my favorite scenes from
the movie Amélie - the name of the Square has been
changed to
Square Louis Michel, but it is still known by its original name.